Christianity as creative myth

they had a cause; and the whole of our knowledge of life and of human nature leads towards the conclusion that the cause of all these and of much subsequent history relates to some extremely critical turning point in the development of humanity. But concerning the precise nature of these events there are several different interpretations, none of which can be categorically rejected.

There is first the traditional interpretation of the Church—that is of the Roman Catholic Church, because the Church of England seems to be somewhat divided in its views. According to this interpretation the whole gospel story is historically true and tells us of events which really were supernatural. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, was baptised in Jordan by John the Baptist, was crucified and on the third day rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples.

Opposed to this is the interpretation of Professor Arthur Drews in his book The Christ Myth and of J. M. Robertson in Christianity and Mythology, who take the whole story as a construction based on the Solar myth. Of a similar kind, but drawing different conclusions, was the whole interpretation of Andrzej Niemojewski in his book which was translated into German with the title Gott Jesus (The God Jesus). He believed that the gospels were in no way historical, but were ‘a superbly beautifully constructed work of art’, based on ancient wisdom about the stars; that is to say it was an astronomically based myth. But he did not on that account consider it any less spiritually significant. On the contrary he regarded it as being of central significance and he personally remained a Christian.

There is also the interpretation of Rudolf Steiner who found in the gospels depths of meaning going far beyond the simple words in which they are written. He regarded the Christ as a cosmic Being of the highest order who at a critical time in the development of mankind entered into human evolution in the person of Jesus, who had been carefully prepared for that high calling. This was, according to him, an event of central significance not only in human history, but also in cosmic evolution.

These are three major interpretations of the gospels. It would be interesting to go into all these three in much greater detail, but in this short lecture there is no time to do so, and all three are

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